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23 March, 2015

Good News - Most-Read Books

Last week, I had an exciting e-mail from my agent, telling me that The Art of Letting Go was one of the top 10 most-read books on Kindle in February, in the UK. I hadn't realised that Amazon could tell what people were reading on their Kindles. I assumed they only knew if someone had bought something rather than if they were actually reading it, but apparently they know all.

Several people I know with Kindles use them as a place to stockpile books. When they see a book being sold at a bargain price and they like the look of it, they'll buy it. It may sit on their Kindle for months or years before being read, but they use promotions as a way of stocking their virtual shelves rather than finding something immediate to read. I therefore assumed that a lot of people might've bought my book last month but not many would have read it. I am so glad to be wrong!

The more I think about it, the happier I am with this statistic. The Art of Letting Go was in the Top 100 bestsellers for most of the month, but got nowhere near the Top 10. So for it to be one of the ten most-read e-books in the country is very exciting. I was also apparently one of the 20 most-read authors, despite this being my only book to date. Even more importantly, being read a lot hasn't led to a lot of one star reviews. There are some negative reviews, of course, but I got my 50th five stars last week as well. At a time when it would be easy to feel as if my writing was at a standstill, good news is always welcome!